Via Gateway Pundit, this story’s not going to end until we have a live chopper feed of their bus speeding away along the highway and Shep Smith breaking in on Fox to do car-chase commentary, is it?

Sen. Jon Erpenbach tells 27 News that Democrats are leaving Rockford, Illinois right now. He would not say their destination.

They have been at the Clock Tower Resort and Conference Center in Rockford.

Our sister station in Rockford, WREX spoke with lawmakers there. WREX reports one lawmaker said, “It’s kind of everyone for themselves.”

Yep, they’re splittin’ up. Harder to find them that way! Quote:

In a telephone interview, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) said he was upholding the rights of workers and the democratic process. He declined to give his location but acknowledged that at least one other Democrat was with him. He said that law enforcement would be able to compel him and his members to the Senate floor if they are located in Wisconsin.

“I can tell you this – we’re not all in one place,” Miller said. “This is a watershed moment unlike any that we have experienced in our political lifetimes. The people have shown that the government has gone too far . . .  We are prepared to do what is necessary to make sure that this bill gets the consideration it needs.”

“The people” haven’t done anything except elect a GOP majority. If they don’t like the new union laws, there’s an easy fix next election day, isn’t there? You know, reading all this, I’m thinking back to the “party of no” crap during Obama’s first two years and wondering how the media would have reacted if the GOP had decided to protest the Democratic agenda by not showing up to work anymore. Unlike this, that move wouldn’t have blocked any Senate business: It only takes 51 for a quorum so the Dems and their 60-seat majority could have safely proceeded on legislation. Yet the screeching about unserious Republican sore losers being incapable of governing, etc etc, would have been endless. And before anyone objects, no, today’s walkout isn’t the equivalent of a filibuster. Like it or not, the filibuster’s a mainstream tactic blessed by both parties when they pass the rules for the Senate at the start of the term and happily used by whichever side is in the minority. It’s business as usual, for better or worse. A walkout isn’t — although maybe it will be now. Is that the left’s goal in this? To turn fleeing the state into a legit American political tactic?

Go read Jay Nordlinger’s post at the Corner about how adherents of the Party of Civility are now threatening Wisconsin’s Republican senators with I-know-where-you-live intimidation. Nordlinger wonders why the union stooge-in-chief doesn’t open his mouth to suggest, perhaps, that everyone take a deep breath and calm down. To which I say, when he has ever done that, really? Obama’s shtick has always been to stay above the fray while his surrogates get nasty, then cover his ass when asked about it later by vaguely insisting that “both sides” should behave better. He won’t intervene to calm things down, which is why his “let’s disagree without being disagreeable” rhetoric has always been a fraud. You’re seeing a particularly stark illustration of that today.